Releasable fastener for attaching chairs to floors



' I bet. 10,1950

L. S. ZAKARIASEN RELEASABLE FASTENER FOR ATTACHING CHAIRS T0 FLOORSFiled Sept; 24, 1948 Hm I INVENTOR LOUIS 5. ZAKARIAsEN ATTORNEKSPatented Oct. 10, 195

UNITED STATE." P

RELEASABLE FASTENER FOR ATTACH ING CHAIRS TO FLOORS This inventionrelatesto releasable fasteners for attaching upstanding members to abase and particularly to an easily releasable fastener for securelyattaching air craft seats to the floor of the plane.

In order to clean and properly maintain commercial passenger carryingair craft, it is necessary to remove all the seats in the passengercompartment. Of necessity the seats have in the past been securelybolted to the cabin floor, and it is a slow and difficult operation toremove them.

It is an object of my invention to provide a novel and greatly improvedeasily releasable fastener for securely attaching upstanding members 'toa base as in attaching air craft passenger seats to the plane floor.

It is another object to provide a fastener for positively locking chairsandseats to the floor and adapted to be easily released by a speciallydesigned spreader tool. I

It is a further object to provide a fastener capable of extremely strongand durable yet relatively light weight construction and adapted tosecurely attach chairs and seats to the floor and having substantiallythe entire mechanism con-o cealed within the respective chair legs.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fullyappear from the following description made in connection with theaccompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to similarparts throughout the several views and in which;

Fig. 1 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially along the lineI-I of Fig. 3 and showing a spreader tool in operative position.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing my improved locking device asmounted on a chair leg; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken. substantially along the line3-3 of Fig. 1 and showing the jaw members and retraction springs inclosed locking position by full lines and in open expanded position bydotted lines.

As shown in the accompanying drawings, I provide an upstanding stud 5permanently fixed to the floor 6 as by being bolted thereto by a nut I.This stud 5 has a transverse horizontally disposed groove 8 formed inthe periphery thereof, and said groove 9 is spaced slightly below thetop extremity of the stud 5.

The lower portion of a chair leg 9 is shown in the drawings and has acentral substantially cylindrical stud receiving recess I0 extendingupwardly fromthe bottom thereof. The chair leg 9 has a pair ofhorizontally opposed slots formed in the lower portion thereof, andthese slots communicate with intermediate portions of recess III andextend therefrom respectively outwardly to the outside of leg 9. A pairof horizontally opposed clamping jaws H are respectively slidablymounted in said horizontal slots and have a pair of opposed studgripping concave recesses I2 formed at the inner ends thereof. Theserecesses 22 are adapted to be received in the groove 8 of stud 5 tosecurely lock the chair leg 9 thereto. The outer portions of jaws II arediminished to respectively form gripping elements I3 at the outerextremities thereof and abutment shoulders I4 respectively adjacent theside walls of leg A pair of leaf retraction springs I5 are securelyattached to the respective side walls of the leg 9 as by the attachmentscrews I6 and extend downwardly therefrom to overlie abutment shouldersI4. A pair of slots H are formed in the lower portion of said springs I5and permitthe diminished gripping elements I3 to extend therethrough.The lower free ends of said springs [5 thereby resiliently abut therespective shoulders I4 to normally hold said jaws I I in closed orlocked position. Each of the gripping elements I3 has a verticallydisposed aperture it formed therethrough to permit a releasing tool suchas the one shown in Fig. 1 to be inserted therein thereby tightlygripping elements I3 to permit expansion thereof against the force ofsprings I5. The tool shown in Fig. 1 will hereinafter be referred to bythe numeral I9.

The operation of this fastener is obvious from the drawings andtheforegoing description. The chair leg 9 is initially placed over thestud 5 which is received in the recess I0 and the jaw members IIthereafter expanded into open position by the use of spreader tool I9 topermit the chair leg to be lowered into engagement with the floor andthereby align groove 8 of the stud 5 with the opposed jaw members II,andthereafter the jaw members i! are merely released and the springs I5resiliently close the same into tach said leg 9 to the floor IS. Theconstruction chair leg, and the only outstanding projections are thesmall smoothly rounded gripping elements l3 which extend a slightdistance outwardly beyond the springs l5 to permit the spreader tool l9to be engaged in apertures l8. It is necessary to use a spreader tool l9because the strength of the springs l5 must be suflicient to positivelylock the jaws ll together and prevent any possibility of any inadvertentreleasing thereof.

It will be seen that I have provided a highly efficient easilyreleasable fastener adapted to positively attach the legs of a chair tothe floor of an airplane or the like to facilitate cleaning andmaintaining of the airplane.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made inthe form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts withoutdeparting from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

A releasable fastener for securely attaching each leg of a chair to thefloor, each of said chair legs having a central recess formed at thebottom extremity thereof, each of said fasteners comprising anupstanding anchor stud adapted to be fixed to the floor and extendupwardly into said recess to permit the bottom of said chair leg to restupon said floor and be supported thereby, the upper portion of said studhaving a peripheral groove formed therein in slightly spaced relationbelow the top thereof, a pair of horizontally opposed jaw membersmounted for horizontal shifting movement in said chair leg and havingopposed stud engaging recesses formed at the inner extremities thereofand normally extending into the recess of said chair leg, a pair ofexternal leaf spring elements each having one end respectively connectedto the outside of said chair leg and the other end respectively engagingsaid jaw members to resiliently urge the same into closed normalposition and means permitting said jaw members to be externally grippedby a suitable lever operated spreader tool to permit said jaws to bereleased from said stud and said chair leg released from said floor.

LOUIS S. ZAKARIASEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the fileofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,225,592 MacFadden Dec. 17, 19402,353,795 Tinnerman July 18, 1944 2,408,547 Bertschinger Oct. 1, 19462,448,817 McArthur Sept. 7, 1948

